Aussie girls yearning for equal treatment

Equality seems a long way off for Australia's girls, with a survey showing most feel they are treated unfairly compared to boys.

SYDNEY, Oct 11 - Plan International Australia surveyed more than 1700 girls aged 10 to 17 about their experiences of inequality and discovered 98 per cent believed they were unfairly treated particularly in sport, the media, as well as at school and home.

Plan's deputy chief executive Susanne Legena described the finding as shocking and a wakeup call for governments to address the issue by banning sexist advertising, removing gendered school uniforms, and closing the gender pay gap.

"We have to make things right for girls," she wrote in a report based on the survey, published on Wednesday.

"There's no use telling a girl she is empowered and can change the world if the structures and systems are not there to support her."

Plan's survey found girls in their late teens were the ones who felt inequality the most, particularly at home.

While nearly two thirds of girls aged 10 to 14 reported being treated equally at home, that dropped to just 36 per cent for those aged between 15 and 17.

More than half of the girls said they did more housework than boys.

However, sport and the media were where inequality was felt the most.

Fewer than 10 per cent of 15-to-17-year-old girls thought they were always treated as equals to boys in sport and the media, while for younger girls it was just 16 per cent.

Four out of five girls felt there was more focus on girls' looks than boys' in the media, with fewer than 10 per cent of girls in their late teens believing men and women were treated equally on TV and in magazines.

Schools fared slightly better, with 45 per cent of younger girls feeling they were treated as equals but that dropped to just 29 per cent by the time the girls entered their late teens.

More than half of the teenage girls told Plan that their perceptions about girls and boys being treated equally had changed since they started high school.

Plan's report called on all schools to tackle the issue by removing gendered uniforms for students, much like the policies introduced in Western Australia and Victoria, and start teaching students about respectful relationships.

Despite the overwhelming feelings of inequality, the report found that almost all girls believed they were just as good at being leaders as boys.

But they stressed that being a leader would be easier if there was equality between the sexes and they had more opportunities to lead.

Confidence also emerged as an issue, with more than half of 10-to-12-year-olds describing themselves as confident but by 17 only 44 per cent of girls felt that way.